The Limits of Memory in The Reader: Critical Discourse Analysis

Abstract

In this paper, the tridimensional Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) mod-el by Fairclough (2001) was used in order to analyze segments of The Reader by
Schlink to account for the dimension of the text where we analyze some of the male character's memories about the romance he had with the female character, but above all, the memories about the Holocaust and the trials related to the per-petrators after WWll. In addition, we analyze the persuasive strategies used by the female character to hide her illiteracy. Moreover, we observe some metaphors in the text, but also the discursive practices in some segments regarding the limits of memory about the events above mentioned. It is important to say that the discursive dimension was presented isolated, but also interwoven with the text and with the socio-cultural dimension. Finally, the latter dimension of the model was explored through the identity of the characters, the ideology of the author and translator and the power the novel itself had through the publishing house and the distribution of the novel as a literary product.